Finnick's delivery service
by rpg fur
Summary: Finnick has finished with the hustling scene. Now with the assistance of Honey and a new hire he sets out to get a delivery service on the ground. However, with a partner who invents things that might blow their business to kingdom kong while seeing conspiracy in everything and a trainee that, to prove his innocence, is playing detective, Fin has his work cut out for him.
1. Prologue

**Prologue:**

Finnick was sipping his drink. He had just gotten a refill from the parties hosts and decided to finish it in the back yard. Nick's graduation party from the academy that had been organized by his parents had been a blast and even though the guest list hadn't been the longest ever. With just Flash and his girlfriend, Honey and himself as his friends and the bunny cop as his partner to be, the guest list that his mom and dad had compiled was complete.

But even with as few as the guests as there where it was no doubt that he cherished the ones that were there and that they were the ones that loved him as a friend. As the evening had progressed, the mood had gotten better and better, and the jokes and anecdotes had gone on and on. A couple of times the whole room filled with the sounds of laughter and happiness. But now the party was winding down, and while Nick's mom and dad would never tell them to leave, everyone could see that the elder foxes started to tire out from all the merriment. Nick and Judy had begun to clean up while Honey had stayed with his parents to discuss some business she had with them. Flash and Priscilla needing the hours to reach their vehicle had excused themselves for the evening and with a final goodbye left. Finnick had chosen to go outside to have the last glass of the spirits Nick's father had served and while he thought about how he had forgone in inquiring what the tasty beverage was Honey joined him in the back yard.

"Hey Fin you're almost ready to say goodbye?" Honey had gotten a ride from Finnick and had promised to drive them both home when the party finished so the little fennec fox could have more than one drink and enjoy himself. She didn't mind as she didn't like the taste of alcohol herself anyway. As she looked over, she saw that Finnick was looking pensive into the glass he was holding. "You alright?"

The fennec fox sighed and looked her in her eyes. "Just wondering what I'm gonna do now that my old partner has switched sites." Then a grin adorned his face. "Don't get me wrong I'm happy for the dumbass. Hell if I'm correct about the way he and his bunny feel about each other they'll be shacked up with each other in the year."

Honey had to laugh at that statement. "You noticed that too huh? The looks she gave him when he wasn't looking was more than enough for everyone present to decrypt her feelings for him."

Finnick laughed with her. "You mean like the looks he gave her? He got it bad and probably as bad as she got it, but neither seems to have figured it out yet. Did you see the knowing glance the Wilde's exchanged? I would be surprised if they won't be discussing how to conduct the wedding later this evening for when, not if, Nick announces that they are getting married in the future.

The badger smiled at the prospect of Nick getting married. "Wonder what the bunny's family is like if we are to meet them. If it's a traditional family, then we'll be exchanging greetings for hours after the actual wedding happened."

Finnick smiled as he hoped it would all keep working out for Nick. The bun... Ah hell, Judy had managed to change him. Something Flash, Honey and himself had never managed. Nick considered them his friends, but there had always been a part of his life he kept closed off even to them. No with the way Nick was interacting with Judy it wouldn't surprise Fin one bit if the dumbass hadn't fallen head over heals for her.

He was brought out of his ramifications when Honey coughed a little awkwardly. "Fin there is something I want to discuss with you on the way back home will you hear me out?"

Finnick didn't know what there was to talk about, but knowing Honey, it would probably have something to do with the arrest with Bellweather. Honey was always the one that had believed firmly in a sheep conspiracy and now that the Nighthowler case had happened saw all her suspicions validated. "Let me guess you want to gloat over the fact that you have been right all along about our mayor."

Honey smirked. "Well seeing as you all kept saying I was crazy all those years I'm owed a grace period to keep saying 'I told you so' don't you think?"

Finnick held his hands up in mock surrender. "Sure sure knock yourself out. Now, what did you want to talk about."

The badger opened the door and signaled the fennec fox to follow her. "No, not here. I've been talking with several interested parties, and I've got a business proposal for you. However, I'd rather not risk that someone overhears our conversation."

Finnick threw back the last of his drink and followed Honey back inside. He felt that whatever she was going to suggest might lead him back on the path he was supposed to take.

* * *

 **Nearly a year later:**

"Mom! Joe refuses to get up!" The tiny skunk girl stormed into the kitchen in an outrage and pulled at her mother's skirt.

"Leslie please don't scream so early in the morning." As she admonished her daughter, she turned to her husband. "So he would snap out of it in a week or so was it? If I had to guess I would say that it only has gotten worse."

Her husband flipped down his newspaper and gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry dear, I thought he would go straight back chasing after her the moment he got cleared from the accusations."

The mother skunk sat down on one of the kitchen stools and wondered about the allegations. They were total bogus charges as Joe had never done drugs nor had he ever shown any symptoms of using them, but for some strange reason, he had drugs in his locker when he got caught. She believed however when her son had told her that someone had probably tried to shift the blame to him. "About clearing those accusations has there been any word from the police or the academy about any investigation?"

Her husband leaned on his arms and showed some worry in his expression. "No there has been no word it's disturbing me. If it takes much longer, he can't finish his year and will have to repeat it. For him, it would be a setback as I've got a feeling he was trying to get partnered up with her on the force."

* * *

The skunk laid on his bed. He couldn't believe that in one moment someone managed to take the dream that was almost within his grasp away from him. All the effort to make sure he could keep up with his lost best friend. To try to get assigned to the same precinct. Maybe have time during work to try to reestablish their friendship and mend bridges. Hell if he got fortunate indeed he could manage to get something more?

But somehow somebody had managed to blindside him and in the process got him expelled from the academy. He knew his parents believed that an investigation would be conducted to determine his guilt, but he had seen the look of glee on the instructors face. And because of that, he had an excellent idea who had planted the drugs and that an investigation wasn't forthcoming. He couldn't prove anything though. He was short on evidence nor had Joe a good idea of the motive. The instructor hadn't seemed speciest, but in hindsight, the challenges the smaller mammals in training faced were higher than those of larger mammals. He had reasoned them away as preparing them for the hardships of the work, but now he wasn't so sure.

One thing was for sure. Joe received a second chance to have her friendship when he hadn't expected ever to receive another one. This incident was not over, not by a longshot. First, he had to find a way to prove somebody framed him. So some fieldwork on the instructor would be a good start. Second, make sure who supplied the drugs. If he could point out the distributor, maybe he could get a confession or some evidence proving he hadn't been the one to buy the drugs from him/her in the first place. Third and most important. Getting Cindy to understand that he was innocent. Even if point one or two failed and he would never be a cop if point three succeeded he needed nothing else.

Sure it would suck that he couldn't become her partner, seeing as he had daydreams of them having fun together making the world a better place. He would have been content to be just a friend and partner to her. Just to keep her safe. But now that someone crushed that dream he had no other recourse but to go all out.

He would prove who did this to him. He would stop the drugs coming into the academy, and at the end, if he could become friends with her again he would let her know how he felt. If she didn't feel the same, it would suck, but he would deal with that when the time came. For now, he needed to make sure he even got a chance.


	2. Chapter 1 - Starting up

**Chapter 1: Starting up.**

Joe swallowed hard. The situation he found himself in was the stuff of dreams, and he had to wonder why he couldn't just relax and enjoy the view. Cindy was slowly crawling over to him dressed in just her dress shirt, the rest of her uniform discarded all around the room. He looked into her beautiful blue eyes, and as she slowly lowered herself to kiss him, he tried to contain the happiness filling his body.

The horrible time after he got kicked out of the academy was over now, and he had come out on top. His innocence proven, his love declared, and even better the love for her returned as she showed him the love she felt.

He softly pulled her in close as he let his hands slip under the dress shirt and caressed her bare back. She put her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss as she softly licked his muzzle till he opened it to give her access. They let their tongues wrestle as he slowly started moving his hands down towards her shapely rear and as the kiss went on and on he softly kneaded the soft rump he had secretly yearned for on so many lonely evenings. As she softly moaned into the kiss, he started to feel light headed and started noticing that he wasn't getting enough air. He broke the kiss and looked lovely at the subject of his affection. Sadly the pillow he had been French kissing wouldn't be much of a bed partner. And the blankets he was groping wouldn't do much for his poor libido either.

In that sense it was a good thing, it was still early in the morning, and his family hadn't woken up yet. He pressed his head into his pillow and screamed his frustration letting forth an amount of curse words and abuse that would make the foulest, rowdiest sailor blush with embarrassment. Regaining his feelings under control, he sat up and took a deep breath. Joe shivered from the desires that were built up by the dream and with how cruel the dream ended had nowhere to go.

The poor skunk decided that he would have a very very cold shower and prepare for the day ahead. He had promised his mom to speak with one of her friends who could have a job for him lined up. Joe didn't want to waste time with proving his innocence, but his mom had been firm about him needing to work so he could support himself as he still was moving ahead with the plan to get out of his parents place at the end of the week. She also had been very keen that he should keep up with his exercises, so he didn't lose hit fitness. His mom still believed that the Academy would exonerate him and allow him to finish his training.

Joe sighed. He would become a police officer if it were the last thing he would do, but for now, he'd have to focus on the present, and now, that meant taking small jobs till the skunk had some stability in the form of housing and utilities. Completing that task Joe would have to find a way to reenlist, but the only way they would let him reenlist was by proving his innocence. The skunk had a lot of things to accomplish, and with the dream, Joe just woke from spurring him on to make sure to achieve it all as soon as he could.

Taking a towel from his cupboard, he headed towards the shower to begin the process of putting his libido back in its cage.

* * *

Honey sat down and took a look at her handiwork. It had taken many months of development and construction, but today she had finally put the finishing touches to her place. The warehouse she had bought from Nick had to have a major rehaul done to get rid of the remains of the theme park that he and Finnick had tried to get off the ground. It, like most of their wilder ideas, had failed with a whimper. It had been a good foresight that they had taken care of all the paperwork as the legal departments that shut them down had tried to get them imprisoned as well. With the paperwork in place, however, all attempts at that had been doomed to fail, and the sheep's henchmen had slunk back to the dark crevices from which they had spawned.

It had taken several weeks before she and Finnick had cleared all the remains leaving the warehouse bare, but usable as storage. Honey then had started work on the lab and workshop by converting some of the office spaces on the first floor overlooking the loading dock. As she progressed, she found that one of the storage rooms adjourning one of the offices could house her bed and by putting up some shelves she made a serviceable bedroom. Then she proceeded to modify the other storeroom into a small but cozy bathroom with shower and toilet. With the necessities set up and with a kitchen in the old cafeteria, she had everything she needed to move in. It was perfect not only didn't she need to spend much time away from her research but this way she could evade the sheep's eyes as they were undoubtedly already plotting their next move.

The lab she finished building had all the equipment she needed to experiment with mechanical and chemical constructs and housed several places for her to set up and experiment with bigger machines. The workshop held all tools she could ever need to make her inventions a reality and had a ramp leading out of it that led down to the loading dock so her designs could be loaded into a van and driven directly towards her clients. It had been for this reason she had asked Finnick if he would be interested in setting up a delivery service with her. Not only would that get him out of the hustling business, but she would have someone she could entrust her inventions to deliver.

The sheep would like nothing better than getting their grubby paws on her brainchild and having someone with her that was beyond corruption gave her great peace of mind. She looked out of the lab's window and looked down. She saw Finnick polishing up their first official delivery fan. It had been a bit of pride for both of them that they had started the delivery service while the warehouse was still in the state of disrepair, but by taking small assignments that didn't need storing overnight and were deliverable with Finnick's van, they at least could get their name out. Now with the warehouse bare and ready to be filled up again, they had put up an advert for their first employee. However, no sooner had they put it up as she received a call from an old friend she had befriended in high school. It seemed her son had a setback and needed some work to get back on his feet again. Honey had said she could send him over and they would evaluate if he were the right fit for the job.

She looked around her lab again and moved between several projects she had started. Most of the work she currently was busy with had come in directly from the zpd. When Nick had his training at the academy, the instructors had noticed some of the techs he had been using in his free time. One of them was a phone she had designed. Not only could you do all the things you normally did with a mobile, but it also made for a great shock taser. If you pressed the sides, two small prongs sprung forth, and you could subdue an attacker instantly. It was ideal for self-defense, and she had given Nick and Finnick both a prototype to play around with while going about their daily lives. During one of his calls with Judy had the instructors commented on the unusual shape, and Nick had shown them the unknown function. The truth behind the device had impressed them enough that they had asked about other things she had made and Nick had described more of her work. Afterward, they brought it up to the chief of police, and he had contacted her to ascertain what kind of work she could do.

The first couple of projects she developed for the police only came about because Nick had assured her that the chief of police was above board and had been the one to make entirely sure Bellwether didn't evade her punishment. With this assurance, she began work on a new kind of body armor that would be usable for the smaller officers that would be joining the police. With the fact that smaller mammals were not able to take as much damage as their larger counterparts this would be a boon to the department. In the end, she designed a three layer system. It meant that specialized underwear, a modified duty uniform and body armor designed with lighter sturdier materials could all be put on at the same time and would buff survivability up by fifty percent. The chief of police had been impressed enough that he had commissioned multiple sets to be manufactured with the designs they bought from her. This first project gave her and Finnick more than enough money to keep them going for another year at least. The armor also was a roundabout way in with she could continue seeing to Nicks safety, so it was win-win for all parties involved.

It had been because of the work brought in by her friend's employer that she had asked Finnick on Nick's graduation party to go into business with her. He would handle transportation for her prototypes as well manage the side delivery business, and she would do her thing with the designs and development, with them both sharing the proceeds. Finnick had been skeptical at first but had agreed to at least try it out for a couple of months seeing as he had nothing better lined up anyway.

She smiled as she thought about the fennec fox. She didn't know why, but the time spends with him drinking away their exhaustion in the late hours as they relaxed from another day of throwing garbage out, made for some of her best memories she had of this place.

Honey had to wonder why he hadn't asked her to convert one of the remaining offices into some living spaces for him as he still lived in his van. His active gym membership was allowing him to shower and groom himself as well make sure that he kept in shape. Still, Honey found it strange that he would go out every evening to work out while she had a fully functioning shower he could use. Not that she was complaining about him staying in shape, oh no, but the badger found she missed him when he was at the gym.

* * *

Finnick finished polishing the brand new van and retook a step to admire his cleaning skills. The light brown van with 'FDL' stamped on the side in bright black and white striped lettering shone in the sunlight. The fennec fox nodded his head at the job well done and picked up the cleaning supplies to store them away. While walking towards the supply closet, he took a good look around and felt great about the results of their hard work. The warehouse had been cleaned, had all the broken windows fixed and all cracks plastered over. In other words, the place looked almost brand new and with Honey's lab and workshop overlooking everything the place finally felt like it was a serious business.

It wasn't like they weren't serious though all those months of getting the place in shape and dealing with the deliveries the fennec fox had grown quite tired, but now everything was in place, and business would start in earnest. Also, Finnick was quite happy that he would be getting help soon as they had opened up a position for another delivery mammal. Not only could he ride along with Finnick for the larger deliveries, but if necessary he could be sent out on deliveries on his own too. It didn't seem like much, but for the fennec fox who hadn't had a day off for over six months the idea that he could let another mammal take over for a couple of days so he could relax sounded like heaven.

As he thought about time off, he looked up at the lab and wondered if he could convince Honey to take some time off too. She had been instrumental in getting the place in shape, and it was evident to Finnick that remodeling the office space to her needs had to be an enormous task. Maybe they could get away for awhile after the new guy had learned the ropes. They even could book a vacation for a week or two, go somewhere warm with lovely beaches. The thought about Honey in a bathing suit sitting next to him on the beach, while they laughed it up like they had done all those nights getting the place ready, filled his head before he shook it in an attempt to clear his mind.

He had to admit that she had grown on him. Before they started working together towards a common goal, they had been friendly enough, but now she had become so much more. Her smile as she wished him good morning, the frown she had when things weren't going her way while she was thinking her way through the problem and the evenings when they sat in the cafeteria and shared a cold drink chatting away till late at night. No, she had become unique to him, but he wasn't sure if they were the greatest of friends or there was a chance for more.

Shrugging, he decided, they needed some time off for a couple of weeks. He would make sure they had that vacation at the beach he envisioned, and at that point, he could make sure of their feelings for each other. Finnick never had any troubles with interspecies dating or females that were larger than him. Being as small as he was there wouldn't be much for him to pick from the dating pool if he had problems with bigger species.

Finnick grabbed the list from the wall that had the addresses for pick-ups and deliveries and headed for the brand new van. His old van was parked next to the warehouse and now had some well deserved off time. His pride and joy had dutifully performed as any old delivery truck, and it pained his heart to think that his baby went through so much. Now, however, they had this brand new van he didn't give a poop about, and it would do all the work from now on.

* * *

Joe stepped out of the house and headed towards the meeting place where he would get together with his mother's friend. She had made the appointment to occur just after lunch time, so he wanted to head early towards the area, so he had time to grab a bite to eat before they met up. As he thought about what kind of food joints would be around the area, he saw the familiar silhouette of a hare cursing out a meter maid mobile. The skunk felt for the guy. Harris, his classmate at the academy, had always been a friendly mammal, but sometimes his demeanor would get him in trouble at the academy and looking at the state of things he seemed to have continued in the same fashion.

The hare looked up to the heavens and shouted. "What have I done to deserve this?" Joe had to chuckle a little and decided that the hare certainly could use a friendly face. "Bad day?"

His old academy classmate had stiffened shortly before answering. "Hey, Joe how's life treating you?" He turned around with a warm smile on his face. At his friend's question, Joe felt his sadness return as old feelings of betrayal got reignited. But he could see that Harris's day had been stressful enough without him adding to the drama.

"Not great. Getting kicked out of the academy for drug use while it wasn't my drugs they found still sucks. But at least I won't give up on proving my innocence."

At this, the hare provided a nod of approval while smiling warmly at him. "That's the spirit if you need anything at all you can ask me. Don't know if I can give it of course, but at the very least I'll try."

Joe felt warmed by the show of support and noted to himself to enlist Harris's help if he ever needed it in the future. "Thanks that means a lot. You need help with your wheel?" The skunk knew he had a job interview in a couple of hours, but didn't feel right leaving the hare behind to deal with this after the show of friendship.

Harris shook his head. "Nah don't worry about it. I'm in hot water for being late. If the chief should learn, I asked a civilian to help with repairs to my vehicle I'll likely be demoted to speed bump."

Feeling sorry for not being able to do anything Joe had no other option to leave Harris to it then and shrugged. "Ok if that is what you want I'll let you to it." He waved goodbye and as he left heard his old classmate starting to grumble again as he moved to fix his wheel.

Joe felt good about meeting Harris and wondered briefly about to which precinct he got assigned too. With the scores, the hare had achieved precinct four was a high probability, but if he had improved after Joe's expulsion, even precinct three was possible in all likelihood. Whatever precinct he was assigned too though they should be thankful for receiving such a happy, friendly cop.

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **As you can tell, I've begun the story with an example of a crossover section. You can read the same situation in both stories, but the feelings and thoughts will be restricted to the ones the story is following. I have some fun stuff planned in the future with this but don't worry these scenes will be rare and far between as it's not as much fun to have to switch back and forth between two stories if I do it continuously.**


	3. Chapter 2 - The wonderous job interview

**Chapter 2: The wonderous job interview.**

Joe had found a great place to eat just a block away from where he was supposed to present himself. A couple of raccoons owned the diner, and the menu consisted of many variations on the standard lunch variety. He ordered some scrambled eggs with toast and coffee to drink. After ordering, he pulled his phone out to research the delivery company his mom had send him to apply for a job.

It was kind of interesting as the company hadn't been around for that long yet, but in the short time had gotten quite the reputation for their reliable deliveries. The most interesting part Fragrance noticed was that the movers had a research and development department. Why a delivery company needed one of those was something he intended to find out before accepting the job. The research and development section seemed to have some major business all by itself, as one of the clients listed appeared to be the ZPD, and the skunk suddenly knew for a fact that if he needed an in with the police, this job could provide it.

The raccoon waiter came to his booth with his eggs, toast, and coffee and wished him a pleasant meal before leaving to service other customers. As Joe started to eat, he checked if there were any projects listed that the department had worked on, but he couldn't find anything on that. Not even a vague reference to give him an idea of what it was the staff researched. Still, he loved a good mystery. And who knew if he played his cards right, maybe he could find a way back into the Academy to start his own investigation over what had happened that day a couple of months ago.

For now, though he first needed to get hired and suddenly he felt a lot more nervous than he had been when the job hadn't seemed that interesting to him.

* * *

Arriving fifteen minutes early to show punctuality without looking too eager Joe entered the warehouse of FDL. He had to marvel at the large storage space inside and knew that when the company would take off it would take off in a big way. Even though there was only one van in the loading docks, the skunk could see that when they would expand there was more than enough space to house and load at least twenty trailers. As he looked around, he suddenly heard a gruff voice from behind him. "Anything you need help with?"

The voice was anything but friendly and as Joe turned around his eyes fell on a fennec fox looking mighty irritated. "Yeah, I was sent here for a job interview?" The fox looked him up and down and gave a noncommitting shrug.

"Second-floor workshop you can use the ramp over there to reach it." The fennec fox pointed towards a loading ramp, and the skunk quickly moved up the ramp to see if he could find his mother's friend.

As Joe entered the workshop, he saw many strange contraptions and realized he was probably standing in the research and development department he had read about. He saw something that looked like a chair constructed by a mad mammal with tiny spikes coming out of it making it seem like it belonged to that maniac from the movie with the damn puppet and a love for puzzle pieces.

He also saw something that looked like a police uniform and riot gear. Another table held a shockgun that was half dismantled and further down the workshop something was hanging from the ceiling that looked like a one mammal diving submersible. On the other side of the room, he saw a straw dummy he believed to be used for testing that shockgun and next to it was what looked like a table with, what looked to be lasers, attached to it.

The skunk was impressed by the display and got startled when someone opened what he had thought to be a closet. The badger that entered seemed just a few years older than himself, and he had to wonder how his mom knew this mammal. She looked him over. "You Dyani's kit?" Joe nodded his head.

"Ok, then think fast!" As she raised her voice, she softly threw what looked like a ball to the skunk, and he caught it with ease. Joe examined it and could not see much wrong with it. Ok it looked a bit high tech, and the blinking lights were odd, but he had to concede it would make a great kids toy. "Yep, you'll do just fine. Glad to have you aboard."

Joe snapped his head up not quite believing his ears. "That's it? I catch a ball, and you decide I'm right for the job?" The badger smiled at him and chuckled. "Diane is an honest mammal, and if you were in league with the sheep, I would know."

"Please slow down I'm losing the plot here. How do you mean I might be in league with the sheep and how would you know if I was?" He wondered if it was possible for a job interview to get weirder than this.

"Well after Bellweathers arrest the sheep have been trying to get back in power, and I'm making sure they don't get their grubby mitts on my inventions to do it." The badger crossed her arms and gave him a stare that bespoke her seriousness. She must be totally crazy.

Joe just knew he was going to regret what he was about to ask, but not knowing would be so much worse. "Ok let's say I believe that for now how would you know if I worked for them?"

At this, the badger smiled wickedly and gestured with her eyes towards the straw dummy. "Throw that ball towards my target there." Joe swallowed and with a soft underhands throw threw the ball at the dummy. As the ball got within a few inches of it, the ball gave a high pitch and exploded most spectacularly. As the smoke cleared the skunk saw that half the dummy had been blown away while the rest was still burning.

"Air pressure grenades that explode when in the proximity of sheep wool. I make all my targets with sheep wool, and if you were in contact with one of the bastards, you would have some hairs on you, meaning the grenade would have gone off. Seeing as you didn't explode you're not in league with the sheep."

' _OK, Joe this is what were going to do_.' The skunk thought to himself. ' _First, just smile like you're the friendliest nonthreatening mammal this side of the nuthouse while at the same time nodding like an idiot at the friendly crazy lady with the explosives. Then when we have a clear way to escape we're gonna run like we never ran before_.'

As the skunk retook a step, he heard the gruff voice behind him giving his already frazzled nerves another jolt. "I listened to the explosion did he pass your test?"

"Yep Finn he is all yours" The badger waved goodbye to the skunk and went back to her workbenches.

"You coming or are you gonna stand grinning like an idiot all day like that?" The fennec fox started walking down the ramp, and Joe wondered how jaded the little guy must be that an explosion in his place of business was just another day at work.

* * *

Finnick wasn't in a good mood. Ok finally someone had stayed after being submitted to the 'test.' But it was disconcerting how the guy kept smiling with a big ass grin on his face. The fennec fox had tried to make some conversation, but that had only resulted in the dumbass nodding like a maniac while still grinning THE WHOLE DAMN TIME. Finally, he had enough. Pulling over to the curb he stopped the van. "Ok, that's it get out."

The skunk looked at him then at the curb and then back to him. Finnick stepped over the guy and opened his door. "There I'm not gonna make it easier for you. If you don't want to work for us, then this is the time to leave."

The way he spoke to the applicant seemed to have brought back some common sense to him finally. "So I could quit without consequences?"

Finnick scoffed. "Who do you think we are? The damn mob?" The skunk looked back to the curb. The fennec could see that the guy was thinking over his options. After he had let out a sigh, the skunk leaned over and closed the door again. "So ready to act like a grownup and stop acting like you escaped from an insane asylum?"

At this, the skunk blew up. "INSANE ASYLUM? How the hell do you think I should have acted after being told that you're researcher almost blew me up!"

The fennec chuckled at that. "Believe me you wouldn't have been the first." He looked next to him to see the skunk looking quite fearful and decided that an explanation was in order. "Look Honey's grenades are powerful, but they wouldn't have killed you. She is literally a genius, and her air weapons don't kill. They would, however, have screwed up your hair if they had exploded with you holding it." The skunk looked quite disbelieving at that. "Hey if you don't, believe me, I could always call up the hyena that applied for the position of research assistant. She had a sheep boyfriend, and from what I understood it took weeks for her fur to grow back in. Didn't want to work for us anymore either."

The skunk sat back and let out a defeated sigh. Finnick extended a paw. "Finnick, I'm the guy you will be answering too. The Badger you just met is Honey. She likes to keep to her inventions, so if you need her, you can always find her in the labs or the workshop."

The skunk gave his own paw for a shake. "Joe, I'll be depending on you then for leadership." The fennec snorted. "Yeah right. First things first though. Honey might have given you the seal of approval, but I first want to see you do a couple of deliveries before I decide. Do these right, and you can consider yourself employed."

Joe nodded. "Fine which places do we need to deliver too?" Finnick pointed to the glove compartment of the van. "There is a list of the packages and where they need to be carried too in there."

The skunk retrieved the list and saw there were three places on it. First, they needed to go to a grocery store to deliver three boxes of goods, then it was a visit to precinct eight to bring a couple of boxes to the welcome desk and finally a delivery to someplace called 'the mystic oasis.' It seemed straightforward enough, and Joe looked forward to delivering the packages and getting the job.

* * *

Finnick sat back and looked on as his new colleague walked down the sidewalk towards the department store. The fennec fox had been dreading this risky delivery, and he inwardly thanked the celestials for sending him this timely hire. Still, he had to wonder why the guy didn't seem to notice the many many females slowly converting around him like a hungry school of pirana. It was even clearly advertised that the spring sale was going on.

As the fennec fox looked on, he noticed that the store manager approached Joe and quickly signed for the delivery. What happened next was in Finnick's book a move equal to lighting a cigarette next to a gas leak. The store manager asked Joe if he could place the boxes right on the table in the middle of the floor and the skunk seemed to have the self-preservation instinct of a bowl of peanuts at an elephant convention. Not only did he bring them to the middle of the store, but he put them apart for easy access.

Finnick closed his eyes and said a silent prayer as the screams of distress of what he presumed was his former employee came to him as the females rushed the boxes to get to the clothes. The scene reminded him of the time he had seen sharks on the nature channel during a feeding frenzy. My celestials those clothes got ripped to shreds.

As he looked in utter amazement at the scenes of destruction and mayhem, he saw his new employee come crawling out of the store like he had just survived Armageddon. Finnick sighed, he saw that he needed to help the guy out and got out. As he reached the store, the skunk was still on his hands and knees gasping for breath. "So what did you learn from that experience?"

Joe looked up at the fennec fox with fright in his eyes. "Something about being aware of my surroundings?"

Finnick had to sigh again and as he grabbed the skunk by his scruff and belt lifting him up from the ground. "WRONG. Never forget to take the delivery forms with you when you leave now go back in and get them." As he finished speaking, he aimed at the spot where he suspected the forms lay and tossed the skunk back in the throng of mammals ignoring the pleas and screams for help.

* * *

The FDS van parked next to the station of precinct eight. It was a small station just a couple of blocks away from precinct one, but this station had an emergency command room. If anything would happen to the station of precinct one chief Bogo could relocate to this location to still be able to supervise the various departments in time of crises.

The fennec fox didn't have anything with the police, but with Nick joining the force he slowly had learned to get along with them. He still didn't want to get involved with them for any other reason than business. Luckily he had his new applicant and Finnick had no qualms sending him into the fray.

He leaned on the wheel and looked on as the skunk took the two boxes and headed into the station. Through the windows, he could easily follow how he performed, and Finick again had to wonder why the dumbass didn't notice the many many officers slowly converting on him like he was holding the ball during a game of football. My god couldn't he smell the sugary donuts he was holding?

As Joe put the boxes on the welcome desk, the fennec fox saw the officer at the welcome desk retake a few steps while signing for the delivery. Again Finnick closed his eyes not wanting to see the carnage as again the screams for help sounded through the air. By everything that was holy cops sure were serious when it came to their donuts. Luckily the cops were nothing like the madness that the spring sale had been and Joe came stumbling outside in reasonably okay shape. He leaned against the van as Finnick leaned over the window and accepted the signed form from the skunks shaking paw.

"Good work only one address left. You think you have what it takes to finish the delivery?" The skunk looked up insulted, and Finnick had to smile. While he hadn't believed that the skunk would be deterred by the package deliveries, it was impressive that he still wanted to continue. As he wanted to ask if his partner wanted to get in so they could continue, he noticed a police car coming their way. It wasn't the car that grabbed his attention but the ones who were driving it.

He wasn't sentimental for the good old days, but he had to admit that the scams he had pulled with his former partner had been fun and he nodded at the fox in the passenger seat as the bunny behind the wheel smiled as they continued. Then he noticed the girl on the back seat. She looked irritated, and he noticed that she wasn't looking at him. Finnick looked at his new hire and saw that the skunk looked depressed as he stared at the car as it drove off into the distance.

"You broke her heart or something player?" The fennec thought about the girl he saw a red panda with sapphire blue eyes. Nice looking too if she didn't look like she just stepped into something that had been rotting for a couple of weeks. The skunk next to him walked around the van opened the door and got in. "We were friends once, but she seems to hate me now."

Finnick raised an eyebrow at that. "If she suddenly hates you. You can bet your ass that it is mostly about something you did wrong!" The fennec had had enough dates and girlfriends to know how to navigate the dangers of relationships.

The skunk scoffed. "I hadn't seen Cindy for 14 years. Then I run in one of our old friends, and they tell me she applied for the police academy. I want to reconnect with her and being a police mammal was a secret childhood dream of mine I thought couldn't come through till Hopps accomplished it. So I apply to the academy, and we are put together in the same class, but she wasn't happy to see me. More accurately she seemed to hate my guts. So oh wise short one where did I screw up?"

The fennec shook his head and looked with disbelief at his new hire. "Did you promise her something like keeping in touch or writing her every week?" Finnick could see the writing on the wall and as the skunk seemed lost in thought shook his head again. Oh, young love. It appeared that if he kept this guy around, he would at least need to spend some time teaching the skunk the secrets of a woman's heart. Looking in his mirrors, he turned the van back into traffic and headed for the Mystic Oasis. If the guy could deliver this package and decided to stay on, he finally had the help he needed.


	4. Chapter 3 - Baring it all

**Chapter 3: Baring it all.**

Joe looked out of the passenger side window while telling Finnick all about the academy and the circumstances surrounding his dishonorable discharge. It hadn't seemed fair towards his new employers to keep that information from them. While disclosing everything he also made damn sure the fennec fox understood that he had been framed. It would be one thing if FDS didn't want to keep him on as he presented an increased risk for their image, but he wouldn't be fired for them thinking he was a drug user. Still, the fennec looked pensive for a minute before speaking. "Even though you claim that it was a frame job you understand we're gonna make you take a drug test."

The skunk understood this reasoning completely. It made sense, and it would absolve Joe to his employers. "No problem I'll take it as many times as you need to trust me."

Finnick nodded, he had looked the guy over, and all the telltale signs of drug abuse were absent so it would be strange if he were taking drugs, but in this case, it was better to make sure. "Good. I'll have Honey design a sure fire test to ensure."

The sharp intake of breath made the fennec look over, and he saw the skunk with wide, fearful eyes stare into the distance. "What? You think we would use a store bought kit that can't detect for manure?"

Joe looked at Finnick and tried to speak, but nothing else than a squeak came out. Retaking himself the skunk coughed and tried again. "Please tell me you don't have the intent to subject me to any more of her creations?"

"It's that, or you won't get hired." Finnick understood the skunk's reluctance to try another of the badger's inventions, but in this case, he would not risk the future of his business to employ someone with a compromised background without some evidence that he at least was not using.

The skunk leaned back and sighed heavily. This was the moment where Joe needed to decide his actions. If he didn't do the probably crazy near suicidal test that woman would come up with he wouldn't get the job, and he would lose the huge chance it presented for an in with the ZPD and the possibility of getting into the academy for his investigation.

On the other hand, he would still be alive to regret his loss. Closing his eyes, he thought back to that moment in the locker room. The moose instructor went by every locker, and when he opened the skunk's one, Joe noticed the small smile the instructor had before schooling his features. As the instructor accused him, he saw the disbelieving face of Harris, and he felt a presence behind him.

As he turned around, he saw the female cadets that had come over to see what the turmoil had been and the skunk saw his 'best' friend Cindy stand there. He called out to her, asked her to speak on his behalf that he wouldn't use drugs, but she had just shaken her head in a dismissive gesture and walked away.

Joe closed his eyes feeling the sting of anger and betrayal but felt new resolve filling his core. "Fine I'll take your damn test, just let me say my goodbyes to my family. And if I should die, you can be sure I'll be haunting your ass."

The fennec chuckled. "You haunt away. I don't really care and don't even think Honey would let a chance slip by to study your ethereal ass."

As the van filled with laughter, they arrived at their destination as the evening set in.

* * *

Joe opened the front door and entered the lobby. While it had become night, the Mystic Spring still had more than enough patrons, and the skunk hurried towards the reception desk to hand over the package. He had heard that the oasis was a naturalist club, but luckily it seemed that the mammals were still clothed in the lobby.

The skunk was wondering though who had told him about the club, but decided that he could figure that out at a later date. As he reached the desk, he looked at the mammal who was behind it a yak who seemed to be in the middle of his meditations flies bussing all around his head. Joe was wondering how he would approach the mammal when he heard the side door opening and saw a couple of hogs walk by without clothes on.

It wasn't that Joe was uncomfortable with other mammals and nudity, but he also didn't feel comfortable either. He just had to hand over this parcel and get out before he saw something he wished he hadn't, and the job would be his. His destiny clear he cleared his throat and addressed the yak behind the desk. "Hi! FDS we have a parcel for a miss Nangi?"

The yak stopped chanting and part the hair on his head to look at him. "FDS eh? Must be the miniature zen garden she ordered online. You must hand it over to her yourself so please disrobe in the locker room over there and follow me."

At this Joe had to blink. Discarding his clothes in this place wasn't a thing he was thrilled to do, but he understood that this was why he was handling this delivery as it must be part of the test. This one to see how far he was willing to go to make his delivery. Softly muttering reassurances to himself, he went to the lockers and put his clothes away.

After making sure he had his parcel and clipboard for the signature he followed the receptionist out into the open area of the naturalist club all the while willing himself to keep his gaze firmly planted on the back of the yak's head. After some bends and turns, they reached a grass field where an elephant was sitting in a meditating pose.

"Hey, Nangi this delivery person has a parcel for you." The yak told her.

"I have no recollection of ordering anything online." The tone Nangi was using made Joe frown as it didn't sound like a mammal excited to receive the parcel they had been waiting for, but her name was on the address, and she did the sign for the package so in his book it was all good.

After receiving his clipboard back, the yak tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, dude I can give you the tour around the place. Usually, I don't go around showing delivery mammals around the area, but seeing as your chakra is all out of alignment, it wouldn't be good karma if I let you leave without offering.

As Joe was about to decline this kind offer, he heard a voice behind him that he really really didn't want to hear. It became crystal clear why he knew how the mystic spring was a naturalist club and he cursed his poor memory for not realizing this sooner.

"Oh look Sam it's little Joe over there!" The skunk looked desperately for a quick way out of this place. Anything was better than what was about to happen. "You sure Martha? If someone didn't seem interested in naturalism, it would be him." _A way out, a way out, this crummy job for a way out of here_. "Oh, hush dear I'm old, not senile. Joe! Joe honey over here!"

Cursing under his breath and blaming his bad luck and the celestials Joe turned trying to smile and saw his grandparents. The naturalists that had told him about the Mystic Spring.

* * *

The car door slammed, and Finnick looked over. Joe sat there looking straight ahead refusing to look at him. "Everything goes alright?"

The skunk handed over the clipboard, but still didn't look over. "Yeah, everything went fine. Went in, delivered the package, got the signature. Now let's go."

The fennec fox looked at the clipboard, and the signature was there, but it seemed something was wrong. "Anything else happened?"

Joe shook his head in denial. "No nothing, nothing at all, but I would appreciate it if we could leave now."

Finnick shrugged. It wasn't weird to have some reaction to seeing mammals naked, but the skunk seemed a little too shaken from this experience. Still, it could be his first time at the Mystic Springs, and if he had seen one of the less attractive patrons, it would explain his reluctance to discuss the delivery. Still, Joe had done a good job and provided that his drug test showed him to be clean he would be hired.

* * *

After dropping Joe off at his home and telling him how late he would be back to pick him up, Fin had arrived back at the warehouse and parked the van in one of the docks. It had been a long day, and while he had to get to relax in the afternoon while watching his new hire, it had been a grueling morning, and he was well spent.

Climbing the ramp towards the second-floor lab, he heard the sound of drilling, and he wondered what Honey could be working on at this hour. "Hey Honey I'm back!" The sound of drilling stopped, and Finnick saw the badger look out of the window before smiling at him. "Welcome back. Did the guy pull through for us?"

The fennec fox nodded his head. "Yep did get banged up a little, but he managed to get through all three deliveries without damaging the packages."

The badger looked at him while he walked into the lab. "Ok spill, I feel a big but coming up." She crossed her arms as she clearly heard in the tone of his voice that something was bothering him.

"The guy has been thrown out of the police academy because he supposedly was using drugs. He says he's innocent, but we need to make sure. You have anything we could use?"

The badger leaned against one of the research desks and pondered for a bit. Suddenly Honey smiled widely and walked over towards one of the lockers at the back. "I might have just the thing. The ZPD wanted a tester a while back that could detect drugs in their suspects. Sadly I had to drop this project as the formula only reacted if they DIDN'T use drugs... and it messed up their hair in the process."

The fennec fox did not miss the sudden pause in her description of the test. "Messed up their hair how? Please bear in mind that he had a scare already with your sheep check."

Honey looked at the vials that made up the test seemingly lost in her creation. "Oh sorry, right. No real biggy it just changes hair color a bit, but suspects would complain so the ZPD couldn't use them.

"So basically it would turn some of his hair a different color?" Finnick relaxed at that. "How thorough is this tester?"

The badger smiled. "It's one hundred percent if the guy has used drugs the last year we will know." At this the fennec fox had to blink, a one hundred percent sure drugs tester that could find out about drug use a year ago was fantastic. He understood that the ZPD wouldn't want a tester that only messed with clean mammals, but the fact that this tester was that sure made him wonder why the police hadn't wanted the research to continue to see if they could make it better.

As he asked Honey about why the study had been stopped, she could only reply that the legal department had shut it down. Chief Bogo at the time had been trying to let the research continue, but he also was told to let it go.

"Well Fin sorry to have to shut this conversation short, but I have to do these last upgrades to the ZPD uniform strengthening. Chief Bogo finally has the go-ahead to distribute them to the smaller mammals at the force, and he want's a prototype test next week to show off the resistant abilities to the officers who are going to wear them as well as the administrators.

The fennec fox waved as he walked back down the ramp. "Sure Honey I'm gonna grab a cold one. It's been a long day, and I'm ready for some shut eye."

As the sound of drilling started up again, Finnick could just hear her reply. "Goodnight Fin have a good rest." The fennec fox smiled and felt his spirits lift a bit. Tomorrow he wouldn't have to do the delivery job by himself anymore and with the police uniform project finally complete they could get the other half of the money the project would bring in.

* * *

Finnick sat in the cafeteria enjoying a cold beer before he would get into his van and get a good nights sleep. Just as he opened the can his phone started ringing. Looking at his can, he waged a battle between first having his well-earned beer and calling the caller back in the morning or dealing with it now. As the phone chimed for the third time the fennec cursed and answered it. "Yo. With Finnick."

He waited for the answer while holding his beer. The voice he heard was unexpected, but somehow Finnick had to admit, expected. "Hey, little toot-toot you miss daddy yet?"

The fennec cursed his unfortunate luck and struggled not to just end the call there. "You seriously want me to bite your face of don't you?" As he tried to tune out his irritation his old partner came back to him.

"Ah, you hurt me. Can't a father call his son anymore without risking his health in the process." At this Finnick had to scoff. He and Nick had done the whole pawpsickle thing, and it had been good, but now he was starting an entirely new chapter of his life, and he didn't need the reminder of the good old days. "Ok, Slick Nick spill why are you calling me so late in the evening? I'm pretty sure it's way past your bedtime."

The line went silent, and Finnick wondered why Nick was reluctant to explain why he called him. After a couple of seconds, the fox answered. "Yeah about that. When we passed each other today, I noticed you were talking with someone. This mammal set off a trainee that's under my wing, and I was wondering if you had any info on him you would be willing to share as I need to figure out what's the deal with them."

The fennec nodded. It was exactly as Finnick expected. The way the red panda had looked at his employee to be had risen some warning flags, and now his old partner came calling. "Can't tell you much about him. His name is Joe Fragrance, and he apparently was kicked out of the police academy for drug abuse. My guess is your trainee knew him. Before you start wondering I didn't ask, but he wanted me to know. He wanted there to be no surprises further down the road. Honey send him my way to talk about an application I had out for a delivery mammal."

The line stayed silent for a while, and when Nick came back, he sounded confused. "A delivery mammal? What are you planning on delivering?"

Finnick growled. He didn't like to waste time talking with someone who was fooling around and being stupid. The question Nick asked sounded really stupid to his ears. "Whatever mammals want carried dirt for brains! Plants, blankets, toys, hell even pawpsickles later on if I can get a van with a freezer. Or are your worried that you'll have to arrest me or something? Then let me assure you that this business is all above water so you can rest easy."

The fennec fox had a feeling that his old partner might not relish at the chance to arrest him and he wanted to make sure Nick didn't need to worry about his new venture. While Nick had sold them the old warehouse, he wasn't yet aware of Honey and his plans to start up a delivery service. They had decided to keep it from him as he would surely try to help them in whatever way he could and they wanted to make sure he put all his effort in his work and his partner. "That's good to hear, but where does Honey know him from then?"

The fennec took a sip of his beer as he noticed it was slowly warming up. "Don't know, but from what he told me it seems he got wrangled into it by his mother. She and Honey were acquaintances, and she had heard that Honey was looking for someone to fill the position." Finnick took another sip and decided to share some of the info the skunk had shared with him. Not only did he feel that he owed it to his trainee to have this investigated, but it could also aid the ZPD and Nick with rooting out undesirable elements in their ranks. "Nick we've both seen kids on drugs before and believe me when I say that I believe the guy when he claims that he didn't do them."

The tone, his old partner, took rubbed the fennec fox the wrong way as he replied. ""Finn we also both know that users will always use every excuse in the book to pretend that they aren't using or that it isn't a problem and you know how sincere they can be when they want too."

Finnick struggled not to blow up at Nick as he annoyed responded. "Yeah, but we also both know the telltale signs of drug use and believe me when I say that he doesn't show any of them. He claims to be framed and hearing how that went down I can't say that I'm not skeptical about the expulsion. There isn't any way anyone would benefit with getting rid of him, but that something wasn't right is for sure." He let out an annoyed breath. This conversation was one he really didn't need at the end of a work day and seeing as he was facing a week of many deliveries while showing the new guy the ropes he hoped that Nick had everything he needed.

"Thanks, Finn. While this info doesn't help me directly, I can at the very least look into what happened at the academy. If he was using on training grounds and got caught, a simple drugs test should have been used to determine his guilt. I'll check and come back to you with the results, so you know for certain what kind of mammal it is you are going to be employing."

At that, the fennec had to laugh. While it felt good that his old partner still would look out for him, Finnick had to make perfectly clear that he could look out for himself. "Ok, Nick while I appreciate you are looking into this I have already asked Honey to put our recruit through the ringer, and that includes putting him through a drugs test of our making. We do need to have evidence he's been clean if this blemish on his past was brought up by clients."

Finnick knew that Honey could come up with something that would yield results no one could argue against. "Good knowing you're careful at least Finn. I'll talk to you later. Goodnight." The fennec put his phone down and took another swig from his beer. ' _Goodnight Nick. Hopefully, this won't end with things blowing up in our faces_.'

* * *

Joe walked into the home of his parents and immediately was stopped by his mother in the hall. "How did it go?"

The skunk kissed his mother on the cheek and walked into the kitchen. "Everything went okay mom. I had to show them that I could do the job today and pending a test I have to pass tomorrow they will hire me." Joe kept it from his mom that it was a drug test as he didn't feel comfortable about it. Not only was the test itself suspect and made him fear for his life, but he also felt shame as if he was really a rutting junky dependent on drugs.

"Don't worry Joe you're a smart kid. I know Honey is a genius, but you've always had a good head on your shoulder so I'm sure you'll pass any test she can come up with." At this, his mother went back towards her stove where the dinner for the family was cooking away.

"Yeah sorry that I have to ask, but how do you guys know each other? I'm pretty sure she's only a couple of years older than me." The skunk grabbed some soda and while drinking sat down at the kitchen table.

His mom looked over her shoulder with a miffed expression. "I'm pretty sure you just said in a roundabout fashion that I'm old. As for how I know her it is because I was a counselor at her school and she confided in me as the other teens picked on her because of her beliefs."

"The notion that sheep want to rule the world?" The words had sprung forth before Joe could stop them, but his mom only nodded her head.

"Yeah never found out why she had such strong beliefs about that, but seeing how that stuff with former mayor Bellwether played out it makes you wonder. Maybe she was closer to the truth than we believed."

As the food was ready, Joe's mom called the rest of the family, and while Joe pondered the existence of a big sheep conspiracy, the skunk ate while his family happily discussed their days.

His father turned his way. "Oh, Joe grandpa called to inform you he and grandma enjoyed seeing you today and hope you'll visit again."

At this Joe's eye twitched a little as his mom spoke up. "That's sweet of you dear that you spend some time with your grandparents."

The skunk just nodded his head not wanting to go into details where exactly he had met his grandparents. His mom continued. "We really should visit them more often. It wouldn't be any fur of our back," *twitch* "and they are always so glad to see us. Mom and dad are always so willing to bare," *twitch* "their feelings towards us. I swear everytime we see them they just seem to want to hug," *twitch* "the stuffing right out of you."

As if things were not affecting Joe enough his dad had to put in his two cents too. "Maybe we should visit this 'Mystic Spring' your grandparents are always going on about. I'm not sure I would be comfortable without clothes on, but like that Gazelle always sings 'try everything' right?"

The skunk had done his best not to let the events of the day affect him, but the thought of his parents without their clothes on was literally the last straw and made the skunk hurry towards the bathroom where he noisily lost his lunch.


	5. Chapter 4 - Tests and demonstrations

**Chapter 4: Tests and demonstrations.**

The morning broke on another day in the city of Zootopia. At the office of Headway in Enhancing Electric High-performance Advanced Weaponry (or HEEHAW for short), a mule transferred in from Furope named Jacques Fesses did not have a good morning. As the newly appointed director of this branch was having his morning coffee, he read the morning reports and had to frown as their umpteenth offer of employment to miss Badger had again failed to entice her to join the company. Of all the stuck up complicated mammals, she was beginning to be a significant pain in his ass. It wasn't like the offers they had given her were too low. Oh hell no. The last offer had been twice his yearly salary, and he was the damn director for celestial's sake.

It made him wonder why the board was so gungho about getting her aboard. The fact that she currently put all her effort in keeping that little delivery service afloat should have made it clear to everyone that she wouldn't amount to much. In fact, he already had secretly approached some labs around Zootopia like Furtronic Sciences and Mahah. Both respected laboratories with the facilities and capacities needed to further their currently suffering weapons program. If miss Badger were content to play around with her little space she dared to call a lab doing the odd job for the ZPD; he wouldn't stop her. Now if he could get the board off his back to hire her so he could make an offer to either Furtronic Sciences or Mahah. Or maybe even that little out of the way lab of Parasol. It was a much smaller lab mostly aimed at home medication, but they had come to him to suggest a partnership.

With the way things were going, it wouldn't be a bad idea just to go ahead and form a cooperative partnership with Parasol. Even if HEEHAW probably would make a deal with either Furtronic or Mahah to further their weapons program, it still couldn't hurt to have a facility available to them to try out new smaller projects. Also, the representative of Parasol had not so subtly let it known that his lab would like to have access to some weapon designs currently in development as they believed they could re-engineer them to be usable in the field of medicine. In return, HEEHAW would get their choice of medical formulas to re-engineer to their own needs. How they would go about repurposing medicine to better their weapon models was something Jacques wondered about, but this proposal was one with little risk and unknown reward. Maybe it would lead to nothing much, but then their investment would be almost nothing either. And if it did pay out it would just boost the profit margin further.

As the mule smiled, he realized he still had to report to the board that the offer to miss Badger got rejected and if he was lucky maybe they would listen to him this time to look into the major labs as possible partners to expand their research and development team. Grabbing the folders, he would need for the meeting he left his office and as he walked down the hallway grinned to himself. Sure this branch was in trouble, but if it were one thing that he liked it would be the challenge.

* * *

Honey Badger was having a stressful morning herself as she received a call from the chief of Police. While the administrators had finally agreed to look into the proposal for the new updates to the police uniform they had demanded several tests first. Now it was simply a matter of getting a demonstration together to show of the capacities of the uniform Honey had developed and she would be allowed to start designs for the uniform and body armor of medium and larger mammals.

This would also mean that the uniforms for small mammals that already had been manufactured finally would be issued to the officers they were designed for. The administration hadn't allowed their usage in the field till the tests were done on the separate layers as well as a live weapons test done on a mammal wearing the uniform. This, however, presented a major problem for the Chief and Honey as they would need to find a volunteer.

The chief had suggested to the administration that a couple of officers had shown interest in the designs and were more than happy to try them during the test, but he had been shot down as the mammals on the board did not want to risk injury to police personnel.

As Honey sighed, she could only imagine that the administrators had been infiltrated by the sheep forces. There was no other reason to be this difficult with issuing clothes specifically designed to keep officers safe on the street. "Chief please how do you expect me to find a volunteer that not only could perform as well as a police officer during the test, but also could be trusted to keep his muzzle shut as soon as the job was over."

Bogo grunted in frustration. He knew she was right, but he could offer little to help. "I've been looking into temp agencies, but none of them have anyone with the qualifications necessary to manage the test. Also, the fact they would need to be hit with shock bolts as part of the trial has frightened of any mammal that even had little chance to be trained up to where we needed them to be."

While Bogo spoke a memory flowed past Honey as she thought back to what Finnick had told her yesterday ' _...police academy... using drugs... says he's innocent..._ '. The badger smiled this issue maybe wasn't such a big problem after all, and if the skunk failed her drug test she still could figure something out. "Chief we're currently hiring a new mammal for our delivery branch, and he's a police academy dropout. Would it be okay if we used him in the test if he's willing?"

The buffalo sat back suppressing a frown. While it was a gift from heaven, it did seem a little too fortuitous for them to have a mammal fitting the bill of what they needed. "He dropped out, didn't he. How much training did he receive before he decided to quit?"

"As far as I'm aware of he was thrown out for drug abuse." The chief looked at his phone in disbelief. What the hell was this badger thinking hiring an addict for the handling of deliveries? Even worse having him hang around the projects that she was developing for the use of his officers. "Miss Badger, do I assume correctly that you've willingly hired a confessed drugs addict?"

Honey frowned. How in the name of the celestials did the conversation get this way of course? "No chief Bogo he isn't hired yet. First, he has to pass a drug test and before you ask me anything else yes the one we weren't allowed to develop further. So you can check for yourself if he has ever done drugs if he passes the test and we show up. Second, he claims that he has been framed."

The chief opened up the academy rosters and asked Honey for the name of the applicant. Typing it in he frowned as the search yielded no results. "Are you sure he claims to have been enrolled in the academy? We don't seem to have any file on him ever going."

The badger felt panic sweep through her for a moment as she imagined the skunk being a spy for the sheep network but quickly regained her composure as she told herself that it had been Dyani's kit and she had told her that he had been let go from the academy. "That's strange. The applicant in question is the son of a friend on mine, and she's under the impression he was enrolled for quite a while. I'll ask my partner as he seemed to have discussed this with him."

Bogo was still trying to find anything related to the skunk, but all the searches came up empty. However, something didn't seem right. He had a vague feeling when the skunk should have been enlisted as he was just now applying for the job, but his name could not be found on the class roster. What was weird though was how some of the scores didn't seem to add up, how the listings for mammals in the running for valedictorian had officer Soniko listed as number two for two weeks when there was nobody listed above her. And last but not least how despite how busy the academy was for years now there seemed to be an open spot that hadn't been filled while the year before and the new shift that just started was completely filled to capacity with many signing up for the next class. The chief wasn't entirely convinced yet, but he had to admit something was definitely off. "Ok miss Badger I'll look into this from my end, but if you could see in the meantime if he would be willing to do this for us?"

"Sure chief Bogo. If he passes the test and has signed up with us, I'll see if I can't coerce him to join our little show and tell for the administrators."

As the two agreed to their plan going forward they ended the call and each prepared for the day ahead.

* * *

As Joe got up to start his workday, he noticed that he did it with more difficulty than normal. This probably had to do with the fact that he would be forced to undergo a drug test in less than an hour and he wondered what that mad mammal had planned. Shivering he remembered the chair with all the needles in the lab, and he softly prayed to the celestials that it wouldn't be needed.

After showering and dressing, he went downstairs and joined his family at the breakfast table. His parents were about to head to the office they worked at, and his little sister was ready to head to her high school. Buttering a slice of bread his mom spoke up. "Good morning Joe ready for your first day on the job?"

"Yeah mom, don't worry I'm willing to head out into the exciting field of transporting goods and making the world a better place for all consumers." The skunk couldn't help the sarcasm that dripped through even though he knew his mom only meant the best.

His father gave him a look, and Joe knew he had messed up. "Sorry, mom. I know you mean well, but this isn't where I expected to be at this moment."

Dyani gave her son a small smile. "I know dear, and I'm sorry that your plans got screwed up. Maybe you'll be able to pick up after some time has passed."

The skunk felt a pit open up in his stomach. All the while that he couldn't re-enter the academy his old friend would be on the beat and getting farther and farther away from him to reestablish the bonds they had. Still, his mom tried to assure him, and he couldn't fault her for trying. "Thanks, mom, maybe things will work out, but for now I need to get ready. My new boss is picking me up in half an hour."

With peace again being restored at the breakfast table the family discussed their plans for the day and enjoyed their morning meal in peace.

* * *

Finnick picked him up about twenty minutes later, and as they headed back to the warehouse, they discussed the delivery schedule for the day. "Ok, first we're heading back so Honey can run her test and we can pick up a uniform for you to wear. Then we're heading to the station to collect some cages to deliver to the Happytown market and last, but not least we get to visit the 'Gardening supply center' and pick up several bags of 'class A' fertilizer to deliver to several florist customers of theirs."

Joe had taken the delivery board and flipped through the pages. "Now I believe my ears may have misheard, but at the moment it sounds to me that my day is gonna begin with being tested upon. Then I'm grabbing live birds that will end up butchered at the market and last, but not least I get to deliver some bags containing 'class A' sh..."

"And look at that we're here!" The fennec fox was glad he had been able to cut his new hire off. Even without his reiteration, the day was depressing enough without getting reminded of it. Now he hoped that the skunk had been truthful about his past as especially the gardening center job was something he was hoping to divide labor on with his new hire.

They exited the van and headed into the warehouse. The skunk looked around and was wondering why the place looked more ominous now he was there to get tested on. As he looked around, he heard Finnick speak up. "Don't fall behind ok? Let's just get it over with, so we can fit you a uniform and head over to the station. If we can finish this day quickly, we'll grab a beer before you head back."

Joe nodded at that. With the way, this day was probably going to go the sound of a stiff drink had much appeal to him. Sighing one last time the skunk headed up the ramp following the fennec fox and felt the nerves he was experiencing grew. As he reached the lab his heart sank. There was a straw dummy sitting in the what he only could think of as a torture chair, and the badger was busy fiddling with a laptop that had a USB cable connecting it to said seat.

"Honey we're ready for that test if you are." Finnick was looking curiously at the chair too as he hadn't a clue what the thing would be used for.

"I'll be right with you. The only thing left is to set this to demo mode and... there all done. Now let's see how it performs." At this, the badger pressed several buttons and went to stand with the pair of delivery mammals. As the chair started up a pin was slowly pushed into the doll and then another and another.

Finnick couldn't contain his curiosity and asked. "Ok Honey spill. What is that chair going to be used for?"

"Acupuncture. Got several requests for me to invent a chair that can be configured to every size mammal and have the ability to deliver the needles in exactly the way the therapist enters into the console." As she finished the chair suddenly made a strange noise like the scream of a legendary banshee. Suddenly the needles started to come out with hundreds at the same time stabbing the poor dummy again and again. Straw was flying everywhere, and Finnick and Joe were looking in pure horror at the display of total carnage playing out in front of them. "Sadly there is a small issue with getting the right needles to come out like it was programmed," Honey said, "If the program gets confused it just seems to decide to start sticking in all needles at once."

Joe tapped Finnick on the shoulder, and as the fennec looked to regards him, the skunk whispered to him. "We need to get a list of all the therapy centers that will be using these chairs. If there is one of these things there, I'm not going anywhere near them."

The fennec just nodded and let out a sigh. Honey had turned off the chair and removed the sad remains of what had been her test dummy. "Ok Joe walk this way please."

Joe looked at the chair again and gave an involuntary shudder as he made a mental note never to get near anything that was being developed in this lab. "What do you need me to do?"

"Nothing much I just need you to drink this." At this, the badger handed him a glass of clear liquid, and the skunk took a brief sniff but wasn't able to detect any smell coming off it.

"What is this supposed to be?" It wasn't that Joe was afraid they would poison him, but then again he had received this drink from the woman who had blown up a poor defenseless dummy just yesterday.

"This is the drug test I've developed in cooperation with the ZPD, there still were some kinks to get out, but the mammals overseeing the funding decided the project was a no go and we had to stop further testing."

"Well great to hear, but now I'm wondering what kind of kinks there were."

"Nothing much just some discoloration of fur." The badger decided to keep the fact that your hair discolored if the test revealed you were clean. The skunk probably wouldn't be excited to have some fur have a strange color because he didn't do drugs.

"Guess I can live with some isolated patches of my fur. Ok bottoms up." At this, the skunk threw back the liquid and swallowed it as quickly as he could trying to prevent himself from having to taste it. As he suspected his first fear had been correct and the liquid while being clear and odorless was absolutely foul. As he tried not to throw up the brew, he saw Finnick handing him a bottle of water which he accepted gracefully.

As he took a couple of sips of water, he felt the nauseousness becoming less. After several minutes the skunk stood up straight again and opened his eyes wondering how long it would take for whatever was supposed to happen to happen. He turned to the badger and fennec fox to ask if the test was done, but as he looked at them, he felt a wave of fear wash over him.

They both were looking at him in total utter shock with their mouths hanging open. The fennec fox was the first to find his voice again. "I thought it changed their hair color a bit."

"Believe me Fin I'm as astounded as you are, but look at the bright side at least we know he's been clean for at least a year." At this, the badger headed over to a desk at the back of the lab.

"So I passed the test?" Joe felt elated. He had worried for nothing as this trial was not as bad as he had feared it would be.

The fennec fox though looked at him with pity in his eyes. "Yes, you did great Joe." The skunk shuddered as the last sentence was said like placating a dying mammal in their final moments.

"Finnick you're freaking me out. What's wrong."

Finnick smiled weakly. "Joe can you do this for me." As he said it, he raised his paw in front of his face and wiggled his fingers. As Joe did as he was asked in total confusion, he saw his paw and saw the color his paw had turned.

IT WAS PINK. And not just any pink, oh no. It was the color of fairy princesses. The color of magical rainbow land where love was eternal and all was hugs and kisses with glitters and feelings were shared, and friendships blossomed. And believe me, readers it was horrible! Just take the image you just imagined and throw up a new bunch of pink paint all over it. It was really that bad.

As Joe slowly lowered his paw, he tried his best not to freak out as Honey came back carrying his employment contract and a hand mirror which she gave to him. The skunk knew he shouldn't look, Joe knew how bad it was and that he needed time to process it, but he took a look at himself and noticed that it hadn't been just his hand. His ENTIRE BODY WAS PINK. "How long?"

"How long what?"

"How long is my fur gonna be pink?"

"Oh don't worry just four of five..."

"Minutes, hours? Please don't tell me it's like this for almost the rest of the day?"

"Oh no. No not five hours. More like... five weeks."

* * *

Officers Fangmeyer and Wolford were driving towards the precinct to start their next shift when they suddenly heard it.

Ralph parked the car and looked over at Nadine. "What was that?"

Nadine shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "Beats me, but that must have been the loudest scream I've ever heard."

* * *

 **Authors note:**

 **Quick note here for everyone that has noticed the reference to a particular small lab doing medical work. For everyone that has gotten the reference don't worry the story isn't going to go through the zombie apocalypse (there are a joke or two to be had though so expect mindless mammals to turn up with a different craving than regular boring old zombies some chapters much much further down the line.)**


	6. Chapter 5 - Time to get to work!

**Chapter 5: Time to get to work!**

Finnick was finding that turning your coworker pink did not do anything for keeping up with a rather strict delivery schedule. Getting him into his delivery suit had been a nightmare as he had all but gone in shock. It had taken both Honey and him just to get him dressed as he had just stood there giggling like he had gone insane. And a small part of the fennec fox had to agree with him. If he had turned that garish color of pink, he might have chosen to just drink himself into blissful unawareness for the next five weeks. However, they did not have the amounts of money necessary to give him the next five weeks of without him doing any work in return. Still, the fennec felt for the guy, but yeah what were you going to do.

What also hadn't helped was that the train got delayed and they were stuck at the station for a solid twenty minutes before they could collect their shipment of live chickens. Finnick found that waiting for deliveries was an unavoidable negative 'perk' of being in the delivery business. However, how mind-numbingly boring it could get if you had to wait for so long, it was still heaven compared to standing next to your coworker that through no fault of his own had been turned to a mammal version of a pink candy cane by his employers.

Kids came up to them in droves to ask why he was pink over and over again. The fennec fox had tried to explain what happened with kind (less gruff at least) words and honesty the first five to ten times a group came up to them. Afterward, he made stuff up from 'abducted by aliens,' 'ate something that didn't agree with him' to 'forgot to wash his hands after using the little skunk's room.' Still, the kids were nothing compared to the adults. Almost everyone stopped walking to regard the unfortunate skunk, and many took a picture before moving on. Hell, one or two came up to him and without asking just put their arm around him and took a selfie. Finnick had to shake his head as the skunk had just stood there with a beaming smile on his face like he was having the time of his life. Off course as soon as his sanity would return there would be hell to pay and the fennec hoped he had returned him back home before the skunk had his impending meltdown.

As the train came into the station, he put his pink coworker back in the van realizing he wouldn't be of any use in his current state and with the attention they were getting it would be better to have him in the company van so FDS would get some impromptu advertisement out of this situation.

After making sure the skunk had been buckled in again he locked the doors and headed back into the station. The cages had been unloaded, and Finnick followed the station staff to sign the documents for acceptance of the parcels. Afterward, he started loading the cages cursing the whole time. The chickens were loud and irritating and seeing as they weren't going to hold in their bowel movements made the van not smell very nice either.

The fennec fox wondered if he secretly couldn't get his old partner back from the ZPD. However, Nick probably would ask what had happened with his new hire to have Finnick needing him back, and something told him that his old buddy wouldn't really be enticed to leave his job and girlfriend behind to come work at the nuthouse. Finnick sighed and pulling into traffic started to head towards the markets to deliver his smelly irritating cargo. He hoped that unloading this batch would go smoothly as they had lost some precious time with the train delay and Joe's temporary shock. If it went smoothly, they might just make it to the garden center for their second half of deliveries on time.

He heard a sigh and looking over noticed that the skunk seemed less crazed. On one hand that was probably best as he needed him to help out with the deliveries seeing as the number of deliveries would stretch his abilities. It would be absolute hell to keep the timing on schedule otherwise. However, it could also mean he was about to be clobbered, so he peaked at his passenger with a bit of a glare to discourage any violence against him. "You okay now? For a time there you seemed to have gone a bit off."

Joe looked over. As he gave a Finnick a gesture with his hand that the fennec knew was very offensive he spoke with quite a bit of anger in his voice. "Five weeks Fin! I'm stuck in fluffy pink hell for five weeks. You want to explain to my family why I've turned pink? Or my friends? Hell, how am I supposed to go outside for a simple walk?"

His boss sighed. "Look player it's gonna suck no question about it. However look at it from the bright side."

The skunk's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I really wonder how you can find any bright side on this!" As he said it, he pulled up his sleeve exposing more of the garish pink color his fur had turned.

Finnick gave Joe a small grin. "Nobody can claim you did drugs now we have done this test on you. Honey made sure to inform the chief of police that we were going to do this test on you so when we show him the results of the test you will be cleared of those charges."

Joe scoffed at the notion that this was the best the fennec had for him but had to admit that the drug abuse claim would be hard to maintain when he started to contest the charges that had been levied against him. Still, something bothered him. "Okay that would help me in the coming months, but why would you guys feel the need to inform the chief of police himself that you were going to test me?"

As his boss coughed and tried not to meet his gaze something clicked in the skunks head. "Ok spill what have you guys planned?"

Finnick chuckled. "Nothing major, but it would probably be for the best if Honey explained what she was hoping you would help out with."

"Oh no, you can forget that. No more tests or help with any of your badger's insane projects. At pink fur is where I'm putting my foot down! I'll help with the deliveries that you hired me for, but no side shenanigans thank you!"

The fennec leaned over and opened the glove compartment. "Sorry to say it, but it's in the contract you signed when you took the job." Retrieving said contract, he offered it to his passenger.

Joe took the papers from Finnick and started to flip through them. "What contract I don't remember signing anything?"

"Well I have to admit you seemed a little bit out of it, but you seemed quite happy and agreeable with everything that Honey discussed with you. Funny you seemed quite glad to help her test out the new uniforms for the ZPD."

The skunk shivered as he wondered what kind of terror clothes he would be made to wear. "Test how exactly and can't I claim temporary insanity when I signed this contract. I've got a strong case seeing I've turned pink. Did I mention I turned pink? Well for your information I TURNED PINK!"

"Okay okay. First of you only have to wear the clothes. They have been designed to improve the survivability of officers up to fifty percent for smaller mammals to almost ninety on larger ones. So what you have to do is wear the full set and have a mock engagement with three officers. You will be armed with a paint gun, and you have to try taking them down avoiding their shock arms bolts."

Joe's eyes widened as he listened to the fennec's explanation. "Say that last part again I seem to have some crazy stuck in my ear. Did you just say officers were going to be shooting at me?"

"Yeah don't worry though they have their guns set to small mammal shocks so if the clothes function as they are supposed to you wouldn't feel much from being hit."

"'As supposed to' being the original words of that sentence."

"Shut up! Listen the demonstration is necessary to show the administration that officers can function as needed with full gear on. It would really help our case if you could dodge most of the bolts shot at you, but it wouldn't be a problem if they hit you."

"You mean it wouldn't be an issue for you. I, on the other hand, don't want to be hit with concentrated electricity thank you very much!" The skunk was feeling less and less like he wanted to have anything to do with this. Finnick however with his years of hustling knew exactly what kind of bait was needed to have the skunk not only agree to be part of this but also assures he would do this to the best of his abilities.

"Well for your information the chief told us that if this demonstration is successful, then he would make sure we would be handed the rest of the ZPD development projects for the next year at least. If that happened, we would need someone to test all the weapons and equipment developed. Which would mean that you would get access to the ZPD and if I'm correct in my memory I remember a certain someone that wanted to investigate the circumstances of him getting kicked out of the academy?"

Joe looked out of his window wonder what he should do. On the one hand, this was a gift from heaven as it gave him all the tools he needed to not only prove his innocence but also make things right with Cindy. On the other, it meant that several officers would be using him for target practice as well what other nastiness his employer might conduct while doing her research. Still, the pro's outweighed the con's, and he realized this was all he needed. "Fine I'll do the demonstration, but from now on I want to be informed way ahead of schedule what she's working on and how it might affect me.

Finnick could only agree with his wishes. If it had been him, he might not even have agreed, but run screaming straight towards the hills. Although he was still leery of having their new hire responsible for the success of their research department it seemed the skunk would at the very least try his best.

* * *

Half an hour later they pulled up to the markets and Joe grabbed the delivery schedule to check which businesses had ordered the live chickens. Luckily they were all stationed at the markets, and the skunk had to wonder if they hadn't bundled their orders to save on shipping. It was fine by him though the van had started to reek more and more as the chickens kept relieving themselves and the skunk shuddered that wouldn't be the end of the stick as they would be picking up fertilizer afterward. Letting out a long breath he just wished this day was over and he and Finnick could grab a beer. After the day he had, he felt he deserved a cold one.

The delivery mammals exited the van and walked towards the first butcher to check the delivery before getting the chickens out of the van. Knocking on the door of the side door they were greeted by a jovial looking lion. "Hey, guys how can I help you?"

The fennec fox checked his list. "You've ordered thirty-five live chickens? If so we're here to deliver."

The lions smile widened. "Ah, perfect timing! I've got a couple of orders for fresh chicken meat, and I had just run out of stock."

Finnick smiled at the lion and handed over the forms for the lion to sign as he turned towards his employee. "Joe, can you get the five cages on the right side of the van?"

"Sure Fin, but I'll be taking two at the time if you don't mind."

"Smartass." The fennec shook his head as the lion snorted at the banter going on between the delivery mammals. The skunk quickly headed back to the van to finally free themselves of their noisy, smelly cargo.

As the skunk hurried of the lion leaned over. "Is it me or does the fashion get weirder and weirder as the year's pass on? I remember that mammals dyed parts of their fur to make a fashion statement, but dying yourself bright pink all over must have been thought up by a mad mammal."

"Yeah, you don't have any idea how unhinged she was." Finnick had to chuckle as he imagined Honey being a fashionista and deciding what the fashion would be for the years to come. One thing was for sure if she ever did get into the fashion world then wool clothes would never be in fashion ever again.

While he was waiting for his coworker to return with the chickens, he watched the shoppers around the market. Under them a squirrel clearly in a hurry going past him while struggling to hold a metal case which was just as large as he was. As the squirrel disappeared from sight, he couldn't help but wonder if the small mammal had ever thought about what it would like to everybody else watching or if he had ordered it online and not paid attention when deciding the size. As the fennec looked around, he enjoyed himself and wondered if the day would get better from now on.

* * *

Back at FDS Honey was still struggling to get the acupuncture chair working as ordered. Three more dummy's had been shish kabobs as the seat went haywire time and time again. Still, she had a feeling she was getting close to the problem, and if she could just deal with the programming error, the rest would be smooth sailing.

That was not saying that she would need to install a fail safe to shut the chair down in case of failure in the future. Having a mammal pinned to death would not be a good advertisement for their joint venture.

Dragging another dummy towards the chair, she prepared for another test run after she had spent an hour reprogramming and Honey hoped this time she dealt with the problem. Buckling the dummy into the chair, she moved over to the panel and started the test program back up. As the seat started going through the motions before activating the phone went, and Honey walked over to pick up her cell phone. "Honey Badger speaking."

"Miss Badger it's Chief Bogo. Have you managed to secure the employment of the mammal you believed to be a perfect candidate for our demonstration next week?"

"Yes, chief he has signed up with us and also agreed to help us with the project." The badger left out that the mammal in question had been shocked out of his mind and would have happily decided to be shaved bare and then be dragged through Zootopia harbor with a banana up his nose.

"Well, that's a load of my mind. Now if we can make it through the test I'll make sure the smalls are outfitted. Make sure to be ready to start work on medium and large sets as I imagine you have greater freedoms with choosing materials for those. As you can guess I want the highest protection you can manage without limiting my officer's movement." As the chief finished talking the chair done with his pre activation checklist and started up. Honey smiled as the program showed no problems and turned around to look over the signed contract again.

"Don't worry chief I already have some materials lined up that I couldn't use for the small sets as they would become too cumbersome, but for medium and larger mammals they would be perfect."

"And they should boost survivability just as much as the small uniforms would for their smaller coworkers?"

"Even better. For larger mammals, we're speaking of almost doubling it." Honey suddenly frowned as she heard something she didn't want to hear and turning around noticed that somehow the chair had managed to remove the dummy's head without her noticing.

"That would be perfect. So when do you want to hold this demonstration? I must stress that the earlier we do this, the sooner I can hand out the uniforms and you can go on with the development."

"Tuesday or Wednesday would be ok. We still need to inform our coworker of what is expected of him, and if we could get access to the training ground the test will be run in so he can get used to the environment, he will be having the mock engagement in it would add to the chances of him clearing the test."

"I'll schedule the test for Wednesday and make sure your mammal gets his time on the grounds, but make no mistake my officers he'll be going up against will also be briefed beforehand and given time. This way we don't have to worry that someone is going to suggest that he won on account on the familiarity of the terrain and not because of his protection."

"Chief that would be nonsense. My coworker hasn't got any knowledge of the grounds whereas your officers have training sims there monthly." The badger was dumbfounded that some pencil pusher would be dumb enough to try to claim familiarity instead of the uniform being responsible for a successful result.

"You try telling the administration of city hall that. No, we have to play this safe. Your employee is going to get his time on the grounds, and the officer he's going up against will have theirs. Also before I forget I've looked into the academy and while I can't find anything related to your employee, it's clear that something is going on there. For now, I can't give you more information as an investigation is being planned to look into this situation so I would appreciate it if you could keep this to yourself for now."

"If you want me to keep this a secret why tell me in the first place."

"Just wanting to set your mind at ease that he hadn't been lying at least." The chief sounded calm, and Honey had to agree that while it had been her friends kit, it had still worried her somewhat.

"Thanks, chief I appreciate it. For now, if you can make the necessary arrangements for next week I'll make sure to have our employee ready to succeed at the test."

The chief voiced his agreement, and with that, the two mammals disconnected their call. As honey turned around, however, the badger let out a loud groan as the chair had managed to also decapitate the arms and legs of the dummy.


	7. Chapter 6 - What's that smell?

**Chapter 6: What's that smell?**

It had taken more than an hour or two till the last of the chickens had delivered to their future doom, and the pair of delivery mammals looked into the hell that the inside of their van had become. "Please tell me we have an easy way to clean that gunk out of there."

"Yeah, I have one." As the skunk looked hopeful at his boss, Finnick gave a short laugh. "It's called 'ordering my employee to do it!'".

"You suck as a boss you are aware of that aren't you?" Joe cursed his luck as he again looked into the van. The chickens had not been content just to relieve themselves in their cages and had managed to get a lot of it on the floor of the van too. He couldn't even start to imagine where he would need to start to get that mess cleaned up.

"I'm also a very lenient boss as you bitching and moaning would have had you fired at least a dozen times over by now." At this, the fennec crossed his arms and gave the skunk a stern look. It was relaxing that his employee was able to keep up with him when it came to ribbing and joking around, but in the end, it was still a boss/employee deal, and it wouldn't hurt to make sure that skunk remembered it.

"Seeing as you are never going to find another mammal crazy enough to be a testing ground for Honey I'm pretty confident my job is safe enough for the moment." Joe gave Finnick a smirk. "But don't worry I understand what you're trying to say and I'll try to lessen the grumbling."

The fennec fox gave his partner a nod and looked at the mess that his van had become. And to think it would only get much worse from here on out. "See that you do as we now have another set of deliveries to pick up."

The sharp intake of breath next to him told him that his partner just realized that the mess he would need to clean up at the end of it all would consist of two types of messes mixed to make a mess even the hardiest of cleaning mammals would openly weep about having to clean.

"Please tell me that we're first cleaning this up. If we don't want the mess, it will create, to be akin to horror incarnate! And that's not even mentioning that we'll never get the smell out of our fur!" The skunk imagined that, next to being pink, he would stink of dung for weeks as well and had to shudder at the implications. There would be no way he would be able to investigate a thing as he would be thrown out of the precinct as well as the Academy as soon as he arrived.

Finnick checked his watch. Could they pull off cleaning out this mess and still arriving at the pickup point at the arranged time to pick up the load for the florists and gardening centers. He quickly did the math in his head and quickly realized that it would be impossible. "Sorry Chico, but if we cleaned out this, then we wouldn't be able to complete the deliveries."

The skunk seemed to sink into despair as he imagined the hell the ride back to the depot would be like with them stank up to high hell. "This day is quickly moving up to be at least the fourth worst day of my life."

Finnick had to chuckle at that. "If this is only fourth I have to wonder what could be one through three."

Joe stretched his body loosening it up and in the meantime tried to get rid of his feelings of gloom at the stinky task still in his future. "I'll tell you later when we don't have a happy afternoon of stink and manure to worry about."

"You know I'm gonna hold you to that right?" The fennec fox climbed into the cabin after making sure he rolled down the windows all the way. As the skunk jumped in the fennec looked over and had to grin. It was going to be horrible, and it would take several showers afterward for the stink to be gone, but at least he wouldn't suffer alone as he looked at the scrunched up pink face of the skunk in the passenger seat.

* * *

The meeting wasn't going well, and Jacques was having difficulties controlling his urges to grab the nearest board member and slam his head against the wall in pure frustration. Not only had the board not accepted that miss Badger had declined, but was now openly discussing how to get her aboard in other fashions. Another suggestion of further raising the salary (to four time his for Celestial's sake) had him shaking his head in anger, but also ideas had come of sabotaging the company she worked for bankrupting it thus making it, so she had no other choice. The ones that calmed him down and made him wonder what the board knew that he might have missed were the suggestions of blackmailing her or even worse outright 'removing' her to 'work' for them.

Now the discussion had come to an impasse. The higher salary / bankrupting the delivery service block against the less legal means chapter.

"What I don't understand is how we end up in a situation that we need that damn woman in the first place! If she's so great at what she does, it should please her to no end that there is a company present that does not only appreciate genius but is also prepared to pay very well for her time and research." The old goat slammed his hoof on the table in an attempt to add weight to his argument. "If she isn't prepared to play ball then I see no problem in shifting through her past. Seeing as she is such a hermit already, it wouldn't surprise me if we found a treasure trove of data that we could use to modify her reply to our job offer."

A lama next to him snorted and leaned to the side. "Still seems like a dung load of work if you ask me. I'm all for just grabbing miss Badger and make her do our bidding as it seems to me that we're not interested in her work for us and more concerned with getting her not to work for them!"

Jacques felt his interest peaked. Finally, he was getting a glimpse of what seemed to move the board in trying to acquire miss Badger.

An elder tiger smiled without humor at the goat and lama and said with a strained voice. "You might want to rethink your proposals." As the lama and goat got up to argue again, the tiger slammed his paw down as hard as he could silencing the mammals and let out a loud roar. As the sound died out, he went on his tone laced with ice. "Do you two idiots think it's an excellent idea just to blackmail or kidnap a technician that is directly involved with the ZPD? Not only would the chief of police have an issue with the fact that a significant part of his research projects went missing, but you can bet your ass also that he wouldn't be taking it laying down. If you don't want our organization taken apart by the seems as the police go about retrieving her I might suggest you abandon that line of inquiry."

The goat sat back clearly not pleased, and the lama was biting back his reply as he was thinking about how to turn the discussion around. A ram on the other side cleared his throat and turned to address the tiger. "We can't risk getting the ZPD involved seeing the projects we have lined up. But isn't there a way for us to just grab her that wouldn't come at that cost? It would be possible for example to catch her at the end of the first testing phase. The new body armor project as our informant has told us seems to have been moved up and is scheduled to conclude next week. If we did it in that manner, it would take days, maybe weeks before the ZPD became aware that anything was wrong. More than enough time to make sure nobody would hear of Miss Badger again." The ram smiled rather cruelly as he finished and Jacques made a mental note never to be alone with this mammal ever.

The tiger shook his head. "Won't work her partner would most likely raise the alarm as soon as she went missing seeing as she's not one to socialize or going out. If you believe that the ZPD might not take the worth of a fox serious I have to point at exhibits A and B over there." On the info board, he was looking at were two pictures attached, one of a gray bunny with violet eyes and one of a red fox with green ones. "Miss Badger's partner, as well as herself, are befriended with officer Wilde and rumors have it that officer Hopps is acquainted with them as well. If miss Badger was to go missing, and mister 'Finnick' was to report it those two would act. With or without ZPD backing and seeing what they did without I'm pretty sure it would be something chief Bogo would try to prevent at all costs."

The lama slammed his paw down. "Then take out all of them! I know some dependable hit mammals, and it would be short work for them to kill two cops, a delivery mammal, and a research geek!"

Slowly sitting back the tiger let out a slow breath filled with irritation. "There is a considerable risk in that. We have investigated rumors going about a link between officer Hopps and a mammal only known to us as 'Mister Big' a well-known mob boss in those circles." The board members raised their eyebrows at that news.

Laughing loudly a boar that had been silent till now shook his head. "You had us discussing ways of getting to miss Badger, but wouldn't it be easier just to exploit officer Hopps. SEEING AS SHE HAS A RUTTING CONNECTION TO THE MAFIA!" The boar was seething with rage at the apparent waste of time this meeting seemed to be becoming.

It shouldn't be possible for a mammal to look more irritated than the tiger had appeared to be up to that point, but somehow he managed to pull it off. "Maybe you should learn to listen more carefully. You almost contribute nothing to these meetings, and now that you finally do so it is to showcase your apparent lack of focus! As I was saying, it's rumored nothing more! For every lead, we investigate we only find more and more wild stories doing the rounds. And we can't get any closer to rumors surrounding Mister Big or his family without risking him finding out."

The tiger leaned back into his chair. "Also, we found out the hard way that we can't get any of the mammals working under him to switch sides. It turns out they are loyal to the death, and our employees who tried turning them have either gone missing under suspicious circumstances or decided to go on long, long holidays far far away from here." The tiger had to sigh at that. "We're lucky that we had the foresight to erase them from our books before sending them out to try to offer employment to his goons. This seeing as our administration department has just yesterday reported that our files are compromised."

Jacques felt a shiver go through him. "What do you mean compromised? Did we have a break-in? Was something stolen and how much of our research is now on the street?"

The tiger looked at him, and Jacques found himself trying not to shy away under the intense glare the tiger subjected him to.

"Well mister director I can assure you that nothing is missing, but as for your other questions, my guess is as good as yours is. The ones that ransacked our files were professionals at the very least. They managed to go through all our archives, and if one of our more 'unstable' admins hadn't been a stickler for everything in the proper order, we would never have picked up on it at all." The tiger leaned forward and spoke while looking at each mammal present in turn. "As it stands now gentle mammals the chance that outside sources compromised our research is very likely. Looking at the circumstances and the timing it is safe to assume that Mister Big might well be the one that has his paws on it, although the chances are slim at best that he knows what he has. Even without him knowing though I can't see any happy outcome with officers Hopps coming to any harm. Seeing as the rumors of the relationship between Hopps and Wilde seem to be more than conjecture I am assured to say that any harm coming to Wilde will count probably as severe as hurting the bunny herself. And seeing as mister 'Finnick' and miss Badger are friends of officer Wilde I can conclude that we undertake any action that would result in harm to them it would also reach Mister Big in short order. Therefore NO gentle mammals we will not be conducting any illegal means to remove miss Badger from the field."

The boar straightened up. "Fine, what do you suggest our options are then?"

"First off I'm pretty sure that our director Jacques has tried all the possibilities available to him to acquire her as an employee yes?" Jacques just could not at that. The last offer had been the best he could come up with without losing his self-respect or making the company seem desperate. The tiger nodded his understanding and continued. "Seeing as that option is now exhausted we can only focus on the other, and I might offer a third."

"What third option are you talking about?" The boar still mad with the tiger talking to him like he was an unruly teenager gave him a look of pure loathing. "You seemed to be quite happy to shoot our suggestions down as if we were idiots, but suddenly you come out with an option yourself when we all but been forced to accept that it's employment or bankruptcy if we wish to succeed."

Jacques was quite intrigued as well. Although he was still annoyed that the board threw away the plans he had put forth he hadn't expected to be learning so much about the board's plans for the coming future. Of course, as the director, he knew the research that was going on right now and the ones lined up to start next, but it seemed the board had more lucrative plans going even further down the line. For those to be successful though it appeared that miss Badger had to be, if not employed, to be not a part of the research community.

"As of this moment, the only contract going on between Miss Badger and the ZPD is the body armor project. It would take the completion of that before Bogo could offer her more work so if we manage to sabotage her efforts without anyone noticing she will be removed from the project and without the ZPD paychecks the FDS would soon be hurting."

The goat leaned over. "Sabotage sounds lovely and would make bankrupting FDS so much easier to accomplish, but how do you suggest actually to mess up the demonstration?"

Softly chuckling the tiger sat back again. "You let me deal with that just make sure to scoop up Miss Badger's employment contract when it becomes available."

* * *

Across the city, Finnick and Joe had arrived at the gardening center and were currently looking for an employee to direct them to the loading dock to pick up their shipment. As they walked into the center, they noticed the zen like music playing as well as the birds that seemed to be free to fly in and out of the building at their volition with holes made in the wall allowing for just such thing.

The skunk had to admit that the music and birds chirping had a healing and soothing effect on his poor frayed nerves and he finally allowed himself to relax and enjoy the ambiance.

Finnick had found one of the employees and identifying himself had asked that the employee show him to the shipment that needed delivering.

The elephant smiled down at the two smaller mammals and gestured for them to follow him. Following they got to the back area were several warehouse employees were busy collecting and preparing various wares to be packed and made ready for shipping. As they reached the fore mammal he frowned at the request and called out to an employee further down one of the aisles. "Hey, Wilbur have you collected the shipment for FDS to deliver yet?"

The giant moose smiled down to his smaller counterpart. "No George I was going to, but then Jim and Ashkey needed help with the Duskkeeper order."

The small moose groaned a little. "Well did you guys finish that one yet?"

"Yep George the shipment just got picked up by the client. He seemed pleased as well."

"That's great Wilbur, but now I've got the problem that FDS is here and the shipment isn't ready. How much do you need to pick yet before they can collect."

"Just one more bag of manure. Wait one moment I'll get it right away." With that, the moose ran towards the back of the warehouse. The smaller moose looked over the docket looking were the rest of the shipment was supposed to be assembled. "Okay gents follow me, and I'll show you the dock you can drive to to load."

Joe and Finnick followed the mammal. The small moose took a sniff and then another. "Sorry gents, but may I ask if that smell is coming from you? I wouldn't say anything, but if the smell isn't from you, maybe one of our batches of manure has gone off."

The skunk wondered how in blazed synthetic crap could go off, but decided against wording his confusion. He didn't need to know really, and he just wanted to get this last job done so he could grab a beer and a much-needed shower. "You would be correct that that smell is coming from us."

Just as the smaller moose was about to comment, his larger counterpart came running back. Finnick saw that the bag had loosened considerably and stepped aside quickly, but he was too late to alert his coworker. As the moose came to a sudden stop, he fumbled the bag, and the opening suddenly ripped open by force letting the manure out.

As the skunk looked up and saw the fertilizer come down on him, he could just think one thing. 'Oh, shi...' The fennec fox looked on in shock as the manure covered his employee from head to toe and the three mammals quickly moved to dig him out. As they freed his head, there was quite a frown on the skunk's face and spitting out some manure his words sounded weary. "I've turned pink, ended up getting crapped on by birds and am now covered in poop. Can I go home now?"

Finnick looked at the sad pink head sticking out of the giant pile of poo while in the background zen music played and bird song still sounded. He had to wonder if the skunk was just unlucky or had done something to upset the celestials.


	8. Chapter 7 - Finishing up

**Authors note: My writing is going to be put on temporary hiatus. For details look in authors bio.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Finishing up**

As Finnick pulled up to their last delivery of the day, it became apparent to him that his co-worker officially was done for the day. The flower shop owners they had delivered to all directed their disgusted faces at the poor skunk as all of them just assumed that he alone could have been the only cause of the terrible stick. As Joe was about to get up the fennec fox grabbed his shoulder. "You start putting the delivery forms in the right order so we can hand them over to Honey for filing as soon as we get back. I'll deliver the last bag."

The gratefulness was readable from the skunks face. "Thanks, Fin."

Finnick smirked. "Don't thank me yet we still have to empty the van out." As soon as he had said it the skunk frowned again muttering something that the fennec made out to be 'of course we do.' He grabbed the last bag and exited the vehicle. As he walked up to the 'Otterton's floral blooms' flower shop, the fennec fox remembered the florist from the stories told by Nick and Judy but had never met the mammal himself. He hoped that the florist would not take offense at the smell as all the other florists had done as the fennec fox himself was also on his last leg when it came to finishing this hellish day of stink.

There was a chime as Finnick opened the front door and a female otter smiled at him behind the register. "Welcome to our shop! How can we help you today?"

The fennec fox put the bag down on the ground and grabbed his clipboard with the delivery forms. "FDS ma'am we have a bag of manure that you ordered from the gardening center."

At this, the otter smiled. "Ah thank goodness. My husband was worried that he would run out as he has a lot of tropical plants he needs to repot."

"Well if you'd like to check the delivery then sign for acceptance, and it's all yours." Finnick smiled and was glad that the female didn't make any comment of the stink emanating from him.

"Sure thing." The female otter came around the counter and quickly checked the bag to see if it was the right brand and size. "Everything seems in order. Where do I sign?"

The fennec fox handed her the clipboard and pointed to the part of the document that needed signing. As the female otter signed the form the back door opened and a male otter wearing glasses came in.

"Oh, Emmet the bag you ordered has arrived!" The female otter pointed at it, and mister Otterton came over to check. After he assured himself that it was the correct one, he picked it up and with a friendly nod directed at the fennec fox carried it back to the rear area. Miss Otterton giggled as Finnick looked a little confused at the lack of conversation. "My Emmet has always been a mammal of few words."

"Seems a little hard being the owner of a flower shop." The small delivery mammal wondered how the florist would handle his customers if he didn't converse with them.

"Oh, he talks to the customers. Don't worry about that, but he won't waste words. Most of the time he seems to know what the customers need before they do." Miss Otterton smiled at the memories of customers baffled by the flowers showed to them by the florist and the smiles that always appeared. In all the years she was married to her Emmet, she had never seen a mammal that had not agreed with the florist. It was a gift to be sure, and she was happy to be married to such a beautiful mammal.

"That's quite the gift. Now if you will excuse me, ma'am. I've got a van to clean and multiple showers to take." The fennec gave her a two finger salute and walked towards the entrance.

"Thank you for the delivery, and we hope to see you again in the future." Miss Otterton's farewell was warm and kind, and Finnick was sure that when he would buy flowers for Honey, he would be sure to bring his business to the kind florist couple.

* * *

They arrived back at the warehouse fifteen minutes later and as they exited the van Finnick let out a sigh. The deliveries got delivered, and all that remained was to clean out the van before he could take a shower and relax with a cold beer. Hopefully, Honey was finished with her research as he would like nothing better than just chatting away the evening with her. "Joe can you hand over the forms to Honey while I go get the cleaning supplies."

"Sure thing Fin." At this, the skunk climbed the ramp to the second-floor offices and the fennec fox opened the supplies closet to grab buckets and mops. Thinking quickly about what was needed to clean the van he also took a vanilla scented air freshener from the shelf. He had to make sure to hang it on the rear view mirror, when they were done with the cleaning, to get rid of the smell of manure emanating from the back of the van.

Just as he was filling the buckets, Joe came back. "Honey told me to inform you that she was finished with her research and to make sure you were informed to take a shower if you smelled anywhere close to how I did." At that, the skunk gave Finnick a wry grin and the fennec couldn't help but chuckle.

"Of course she did." Still, the small fox had a hard time to hide his enthusiasm as it seemed that the evening would indeed be filled with hanging out with Honey again. It had been several days since they last had the time to just sit and have a pleasant conversation.

Joe opened the back of the van to get started on the cleaning job but had to stop and gag as the unholy stink emanating from the vehicle attacked his sinuses again. It hadn't seemed so bad when they were driving in it, but get out into the fresh air, and you couldn't help but be assaulted by the smell when you returned.

He heard laughter as Finnick walked up to him carrying two buckets, a couple of mops and sponges. "Let's hurry up and wash the inside out. I'm sure you are just as anxious to get rid of the smell out of your fur as I am and there are a couple of beers in the cooler with our names on it afterward."

The skunk smiled. "That sounds like a plan to me."

The next half hour was filled with the two cleaning all the chicken poop and synthetic manure out of the delivery van. It was a grueling job, and both really wished that it was over and done with, but it was satisfying to see the van return to its former clean state.

"That's it. It's clean! Finally." Finnick hung the little air freshener on the mirror and got out of the van. Joe grabbed the buckets with dirty water and disposed of the contents out on the grass outside of the warehouse.

"Thank the heavens for that." It had been a strange, horrible day, but the skunk couldn't help the feeling of accomplishment. His fur was still pink, and his smell could peel paint from the walls, but now it was time to disrobe, put his uniform in the wash and finally get the stink out of his fur by taking a shower (or a couple).

As the two mammals closed the doors, Honey came down the ramp. "All right you two, have you finished cleaning the van yet?"

"Just finished as you walked down." Finnick gave her a bright smile and felt happy when she returned it.

"Great. And Joe I've spoken to the chief of police again, and we've decided to have the test phase of the police uniform and body armor next Tuesday or Wednesday." The badger knew the skunk hadn't been sane when she told him about the tests this morning, so it wasn't a bad idea to remind him of them.

The resignation was evident on his face. "Isn't that a little early to try and do this? Let me remind you that I've got no idea how I'm going to function with these new clothes on. How come by the way that we need to supply the personnel for these test anyway?"

"It's part of the contract we signed with the ZPD. It includes that we need to participate in tests to show off gear and armament designed for the ZPD officer's usage. You with you police training are perfect as a stand in for on duty officers to show off the capabilities." The badger smiled a little nervous as it all came down to this.

If the skunk had enough and quit, they were back to square one and had to find another mammal willing to participate in the tests as well. Not to mention the skunk seemed to be an excellent fit in with them. As Honey looked at Finnick, she was happy to see him smile or at least smirk in a good mood. Normally he would be too tired. He would still wear the hint of a smile when talking to her, but a real smile or smirk was nowhere to be seen and as the months went on and on the times she saw the fennec smile became fewer and fewer.

Joe let out a weary sigh. "What does the test entail exactly?"

Bolstered by the skunks will to at least listen to what the fine details of the trial were Honey started listing of what was expected from them to have city hall agree to the purchase of the designs.

If the test were successful Honey would make the first batch of uniforms herself, and the city would then offer the contract for the continued production of the clothes and armor to a third party. This freed the badger up to continue with her research and development into other projects.

The skunk put his paws to his face and slowly rubbed his eyes. He was tired and really needed a shower. "Do we know when we exactly get access to the training grounds for me?"

Honey shook her head. "We don't at the moment, but something tells me that Bogo will have our access ready by Thursday, maybe Friday at the latest's."

Joe spread his fingers and looked at honey through the slits. "Friday? That means I'm working through the weekend till the trials then."

At this Finnick spoke up. "Afraid so Chico, but don't worry we'll give you the Thursday and Friday after the test off, so you'll have a four day weekend following it."

The skunk nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Still, that means I've got a busy couple of days ahead of me."

Honey put her paw under her muzzle. "Maybe we can get one of the officers to help you get accustomed to the grounds and help in your training by being a sort of 'sparring partner' to simulate what the test will be like."

The fennec fox spoke up grabbing the skunks arm. "Let's plan what we're doing tomorrow morning. For now, let's get cleaned up and grab those beers. I'm sure you don't want to smell like dung for much longer."

The badger giggled at that statement. "Go get cleaned up you two. I'll grab a couple of beers for you and get some snacks ready."

Finnick smiled at her. "You're the best Honey."

"Tell me something I don't know." Honey gave the fennec a teasing wink and felt the warm feeling in her chest from the happy look her fennec fox was giving her. At that last thought, the badger suddenly realized that she had begone to see Finnick as being hers. It felt strange as she never had given any thought about even getting together with anyone, but at the same time, it felt so right.

After they had cleaned themselves up and met up with Honey in the cafeteria, the delivery mammals sat around the table and as the minutes passed by talked about general things while trying to get to know each other.

When it became close to dinner time, Joe excused himself for the day and left to go home to have dinner with his family.

Honey stood up and seeing as it was her turn to cook or order out she turned towards her partner. "What do you want to eat tonight? I can make grasshopper tacos or maybe some buffalo worm macaroni and cheese. And if you're not really hungry I could always make us some bee.l.t. sandwiches."

Finnick had to think about that a little. "The bees fresh?"

The badger smiles. "Bought them yesterday when you guys were out. So they are still nice and fresh."

The fennec fox felt famished, so he stood up as well. "Ok Honey I'm starved. So if you cook and prepare the grasshopper tacos, I'll make us some Bee.l.t. sandwiches."

As the two mammals stood side by side in the kitchen preparing the food, they enjoyed the closeness and company of each other.

* * *

Joe opened the front door. "Helly everyone. I'm home."

"Welcome back dear how were you... WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?" Dyani had not been prepared for the state her son would return in.

"Small accident on the job. Nothing to worry about it will wear off in a couple of weeks." The skunk tried to give his mom a big smile, but it was strained at best. "Something smells good though what are we having?"

Dyani could tell that her son was trying to move the conversation away from his fur color and decided that during dinner time she could let it go. He would be giving her the details why he was pink after dinner though.

"Mom is dinner ready yet? I'm star..." As Leslie descended the stairs, she had taken a look at her brother and wasn't really sure how to handle the extreme pink color he was sporting.

"Hi, sis. Please don't start I had a rough day." The skunk gave his sister a pleading look and hoped that she would drop it.

"I bet." The young skunk could see the weariness on her brothers face and while this was prime grade A teasing material she could give him an evening of peace before she started ripping into him. Evilly smirking on the inside, she gave him the sweetest smile she could manage. "Don't worry Joe I would never be so mean as to tease you with our fur color. By the way, why are you pink?"

Joe gave his sister a skeptical look. The only time she would not tease him with something as if she was planning to tease him much much worse in the future. Still, it was better to take the break she was giving him and suck up the torture in the future. "Accident in the workplace."

"Bummer." And with that Leslie walked into the dining room. Just as Dyani and Joe were about to follow her, the front door opened again, and his father entered. "Hi everyone I'm home."

"Welcome home dear." The female skunk quickly walked over to her husband to give him a hug and kiss. While she hugged and kissed him, she noticed that he wasn't returning said hug and kiss and looking at her husband she saw that he was looking totally stunned at his son.

"I told you not to let him play with dolls. This one is one you." Joe's father broke down sobbing, and Joe rolled his eyes while his mom groaned.

Leslie in the meantime was standing in the door opening to the dining room with a big smirk on her face 'Yep. This is going to be a blast.'

* * *

Khan had not been a willing member of the board, but as the leader had told him his input was needed with the highest urgency. He had seen and heard what kind of nonsense the board members had proposed and was still feeling ill that he'd have to deal with them until the leader's plan was put into action.

He sighed wearily. Luckily all pieces were now in place, and it didn't seem anything could go wrong apart from one thing. Now if he could derail miss Badgers little project it would be a load of his mind. To do that however he would need the help of their best piece on the board. It was not a move he was entirely comfortable to make as the implications of his infiltrant in the ZPD getting found out would be disastrous to the grand plan.

It had taken decades of grueling dedicated research and excellent teaching to get the Infiltrator to the level needed. Furthermore, it had taken a lot of money to bribe several officials at the academy. Not only did they need major Friedkin of campus on another assignment for the entire training semester, as she was far too straight laced and would never have played ball, but also to make sure they had free reign to install instructors that suited their needs. Then the enormous cost of making sure their man on the inside had the drugs required to boost their infiltrator's performance. It had been a shock to hear that the drugs had been discovered. Luckily their man had managed to direct the attention away from their operation.

The Infiltrator had made it through the academy and now a proud member of the ZPD. Khan had to admit to himself. They had spent so much time and money on the insider that it would be wise to test the mammal to see if the seed of their combined efforts would bear fruit.

Leaving his office, he called his driver to pick him up. He had to make places to go and an Infiltrator to instruct.


End file.
